Well, I decided to try something else. I took a metal coat hanger, and after using the pusher to create the tunnel , I folded the coat hanger back onto itself and fed it through and pulled, rather than pushed the core through the cover. It worked. The splice is stiff, but strong. I think that this may be the answer to my problems and after a couple more practice runs on some old line, I'll try it on my genny sheets.